Fiddlin' Jim Burke (Doc Roberts) - Champion 15873 (1929)

Dock Philipine
Roberts was born and raised on a farm in Madison County, Kentucky and learned
to play the fiddle at an early age with some help from his older brother
Liebert. Doc's and Liebert's musical mentor was the African-American fiddler
Owen Walker.

After
finishing his studies in Berea Roberts married in 1913. In 1925, a talent
scout, Dennis Taylor, recruited Roberts along with Welby Toomey and Edgar Boaz
as old time recording artists for Gennett Records. In early 1927, Roberts recorded
with the string band, the "Booker Family". Together with Dick Parman
and Ted Chestnut, he formed the Kentucky Thorobreds. They recorded in April
1927 for the Paramount label.

In the fall of
1927, he formed a duo with Asa Martin called Martin & Roberts. They made
their recording debut in May 1928 for the Gennett label. Between 1927-1934, the
duo performed at fiddler's conventions, in schoolhouses, on vaudeville stages,
and on radio (WHAS in Louisville, Kentucky). Martin & Roberts recorded altogether
more than 200 sides on 11 different labels. Later on, with the addition of Doc
Roberts' son James, the Fiddlin' Doc Roberts Trio was formed. In 1928, Roberts
was hired, through the agency of Bradley Kincaid, by the National Barn Dance
radio show in Chicago. He was paid $50 a week. After only
two weeks he quit the show and moved back to Kentucky. The reason was that he was unable to
sleep due to the noise of the big city. The Doc Roberts Trio lasted until 1934
when Roberts retired as a recording artist. During the next 4 decades, he
continued to make personal appearances and occasional radio works.

About Me

Welcome to my strand of the web. I am an amateur collector of 78 rpm records. I won't say that I'm obsessed with this hobby...but my wife will.

It all started after watching the Glenn Miller movie "Orchestra Wives" with my Grandmother.

Spending a few hours combing through piles of shellac looking for Big Band 78's was my idea of fun.

Looking back on those early days, I wonder how many gems I overlooked while feverishly searching for swing discs.

Not much can compare with the rush of finding something rare and collectible in a stack of dusty, musty grooves etched with dormant sounds of eras gone by just begging for a spinning platter and a probing stylus to bring it back to life...